Stuck in Their World
by kosmophiliac
Summary: Two internet friends meet in a way that isn't exactly ordinary...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Rowena

"What the fuck?" she asked.

" _What the fuck?"_ I asked in response. " _No, seriously, what the actual fuck?"_

"Omigosh!" she whisper-screamed. "You're actually here! I'm so glad it's actually you and you weren't just an old man pretending to be Rowena this whole time!" Nikki seal-clapped with joy and made excited whale noises in the back of her throat.

"Yes, oh my God, this is amazing!" I responded, seal-clapping back in response. "We can _totally_ take over the world, now!"

" _Yesss!"_ Nikki hissed back, dragging out the _s_ sound **like she was dragging a poor soul into the depths of hell**. Then, kinda outta nowhere, she tackle hugged me and squeezed me _maybe a second too long to be comfortable_ before letting go and getting back on the ground.

"Sorry, I've always really wanted to do that to a tall person," she explained. "All the other tall people I know are bad at being touchy-feely."

"You're so short," I snickered, patting her head. "But really, though, _what the fuck?"_

"Hm?"

"I mean, it's great you're here and all, and we can talk without Google Hangout, but _how are you here?_ And _where are we?"_ I asked, finally realizing that, nope, I was not in my room anymore.

"Well, we appear to be in an alley," Nicole said thoughtfully, a finger on her chin.

I snorted. "Yeah, like, no shit. But _where?"_

She turned in circles a bit, carefully observing the trashcans and rats and other things you may find in a generic alleyway. "Ro, maybe we're in-" she began, but she was cut off by a loud _crash bang!_ noise.

It scared the crap out of me, and Nikki, apparently, too, because we both jumped several feet into the air.

Sometime during the _shit, what was that?_ haze, I noticed things had darkened out, save for Nicole and _wait did Nikki turn into a floating blue ball?_

" _Whatthefuckhappenedtomyarmomigoditturnedintoaswordwhatthefuck-"_ Words spewed out of Nicole's mouth and suddenly everything was normal again.

That's when I realized Nikki's arm no longer existed.

"Oh my God, is that a _sword?"_ I gaped, stepping back a bit so as not to be chopped up from her frantic swinging.

" _Omigod, Rowena, getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoooOOOOOOooooffff!"_ was the only response.

"What the hell kind of Soul Eater bullshit _is_ this?" I nearly shouted.

"Shut _up_ down there!" an angry voice yelled. A red face peeked out from the apartment window above.

Nikki stopped her sword waving to awkwardly go, "Uh, sorry, ma'am!"

" _I'm a guy!"_

" _Sir!_ I meant _sir!_ " she hastily back pedaled.

Then her sword-arm glowed and turned back into flesh as the angry (wo)man grumbled and closed his window.

Then there was an awkward moment of silence. Feeling the need to kill it, I quietly told her, "That was some weird-ass shit, dude."

She was too busy holding her arm close to her and rocking on the floor to answer.

I had to coax her gently into letting go of her own limb and standing up.

"Now, let's check out the rest of the town. I'm sure we can find some answerrrrr-" I froze, my mind going blank for a few seconds.

 _Am I seriously seeing what I think I am seeing like seriously wait what what what what whatwhatwhatwhatwhat…?_

"Rowena, what's wrooooo-" She froze, too. Was she seeing what I was seeing?

" _What the fuck is up with the sun?"_ she burst out. Apparently she wasn't.

"The sun? Oh, I'm sorry, I was too busy looking at the giant _skull castle!"_ I blurted, sarcasm getting the better of me in my panic. "Wait- sun?" I glanced up.

"Wait- castle?" She glanced down.

Directly above the giant skull castle was a sun with a menacing grin.

"Oh," I managed.

" _Oh,"_ Nikki echoed. "Is that…?"

"Yep." I answered before she even finished. "That is."

" _Welcome to the DWMA,"_ we muttered.

We held still for a moment, just to take it all in, and Nikki started laughing hysterically.

"What?" I asked. "What's so funny?"

"We…" she began, but was cut off by her own snorts. "We are so freaking…" She giggled. "It's just… Hehe, we're so totally _screwed,_ man."

I gave a little laugh of my own, not wanting to feel awkward and hoping to disguise the fact that I was standing next to a hysteric madman (madwoman?) for the pedestrians' sakes.

"Ah," she sighed, apparently done with her giggle fit. "This is gonna be hella."

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

For some reason, Nikki had ended up sleeping in her regular clothes so she got actual jeans and a T-shirt while I was stuck in a too-big Captain America shirt and zebra-print soffe's. But both of us were barefoot. Oh, the joys of hot cement. She had her wallet on her, too, and since we were (thankfully) still in America (or, you know, a version of America), they took her money when she bought ice cream for the both of us.

She shrugged, slurping the little bit of chocolate left at the bottom of her cone. I'd already finished my Mackinac Island fudge, but Nikki ate slower than me so we just took a seat on a bench to think and finish up.

She shrugged. "Get a job, get a house, have two-point-five kids in a nice two story house in the suburbs with a white picket fence and only occasionally mentally scar the neighbors."

I suppressed a laugh and managed to get it down to a quiet, " _pfft,"_ and a snicker, but tried to keep things serious. "No, I mean, you are obviously a weapon, and I have freaky soul sense stuff going on in my brain. We could join the DWMA, you know," I told her.

She made a face. "Yeah, but it's pretty dangerous. Also, how the heck do we even get in? I don't even know how to handle _regular_ school transfers, let alone school transfers to the friggin' _Death Weapon Meister Academy_. Like, do we go up and ask? Submit a resume? How would we even _make_ a resume? Like, we're in another _world_ , I think. Maybe. And also, we don't have any credentials, save for my military ID, and we don't have any money, save for the fifty-seven bucks I got left." Nikki finished her rant with a punctuating crunch of her waffle cone.

I thought for a moment. "Jobs first," I decided, "and then the cheapest apartment we can get, and _then_ the DWMA."

She nodded in agreement. "Good plan, boss."

"Boss?"

"Just roll with it."

* * *

Hello and welcome to my first Soul Eater story! I realize this first chapter is very short, but that's because it ended up getting so long we needed to cut it into two. Chapter Two will be much longer, I promise. Now, for a disclaimer, I do NOT own Soul Eater or any of its canon characters. Rowena is a representation of me, and Nikki is my internet friend Kyla. Also, I have published this story on my account on Quotev, so if you see it on there, know that it is also me, and please don't report it. This story takes place in the anime story line, because the manga is way too long and I don't really like the manga's ending (CRONA MY BABY WHY).


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Rowena

" _Just roll with it,"_ became our motto. We approached the first store with HELP WANTED in the window.

"Hello? Miss?" asked Nikki as politely as possible. She was the delegated speaker until we found a clothing store and I got proper pants because _it was so weird talking to middle-aged people while in booty shorts._

"Nope."

And that was that.

Apparently, two barefoot girls with bedhead were not the type of employees she was looking for.

Nikki looked like she was just slapped before walking away, softly singing, " _Shot through the heart, and you're to blame. You give lo-o-ove, a bad name."_

She insisted that I tried next, after she got me the best pants the clearance pile could give.

"Hey, mister," I opened, approaching some old guy watering flowers in front of the next hiring store we saw. "My friend and I were looking for jobs, and we were wondering if you-"

"I'm sorry, but I can't talk right now. I'm waiting for someone to come to me for a job!" he told us, grinning his toothless old-person grin. "I put an ad out!"

"Yes, we saw," I nodded, showing him the swiped newspaper we'd gotten. "I was asking if we could-"

"Oh, that's my ad!" he said ecstatically. "You saw it? Sorry, I can't talk now, though. I'm waiting for someone to come in to ask-"

I sighed and put my head in my hands before remembering _manners, Rowena, manners. You want this job, don't you?_

"We're here about the ad, sir," I tried again.

"What? I put it in there legally! Now, what are you accusing me of?" The sweet old man turned sour.

"What? I'm not accusing you of _anything_ , I'm just-"

"I'm not going back to jail! You'll never take me back! _Never!"_ he spat, before dropping his watering can and trotting away, surprisingly speedy for an old guy.

I held my hands out to the retreating figure in the universal, "whoa, Nelly," sign. "What… What the fuck just happened?" I asked.

"I think you just got turned down, mate," Nicole snickered. "Harsh."

" _Mmm, watcha sa-ay,"_ I sang lowly.

Nikki cackled like a hyena.

This… has been an off day for me.

"Just roll with it," she choked out. "Just roll with it."

I checked the newspaper Nikki and I had Ezio'd out of the local grocer's. "It looks like the next job is…"

And the next few hours ran on like that.

"Well, fourth job's the charm."

"Sixth job's the charm."

"Tenth?"

"Damn it, by the time we're done with this the Doctor's gonna be ginger."

At least all the running around the city gave us a good feel for the streets.

It was nearly four or so, and we'd woken up around… seven-ish? Eight-ish? So we'd been running for about eight hours on ice cream and fear.

"This will be our dozen-th job venture. The next one on the list is… blue eyes white dragon i summon you in attack position and synchro summon the THREE HEADED HYDRA HAIL HYDRA Daiki's Arcade."

"Sounds like a Game Stop for weebs. Just for us," I giggled weakly. In truth, I was hungry as hell and my feet hurt and I was wondering how the heck Nikki was lasting this long. The only reason I held up this long was marching band. Band camp hasn't failed me yet.

"Last one, and then we can take a break," she told me. That's when I noticed she hadn't stopped smiling. I vaguely thought, _Some people go so long without sleep they no longer have a grasp of reality. They don't even notice their physical limits, they just plow right through them._ Feeling like it was my duty as a human being to document this phenomenon, I nodded along, even though she had said we could take a break _five jobs ago._

Each interview was short, thankfully, but… Wait, no. Not thankfully. It meant we went through _eleven different store owners_ and each one of them shot us down within minutes.

I imagined I was typing on tumblr and thought, _*tips fedora hat in shame* shot down yet again by a succubus. and i was so polite. nice guys finish last. oh, heart, how you hurt me so._

I missed technology.

My phone, my computer, my tablet, all gone. Then I remembered my sister and house and shit.

The realization smacked me in the face. "Shit," I said aloud. "How the hell are we gonna get back?"

Nikki froze, then slowly turned to me. "I'm… not sure. I was honestly hoping to avoid the question in hopes you would have the answer by the time I asked."

I sucked in air through my teeth and forced away the panic. "Shit," I said again.

She nodded. "Yeah."

Then we kept walking so as not to clog up the street.

 _Shit._

The arcade (Daiki's Arcade, the loud signs reminded me) was impressive. Or at least the outside was. The sign was in Japanese with English in notably smaller print at the bottom (which most of the store signs were in, which was strange because _we're in Nevada, dammit!_ ). Neon lights carefully outlined the katakana (or was it hiragana?).

"... Seems legit," I said after a while.

It was surprising how colorless this town was. Sure, there were the natural colors of paint and flowers and people, but there weren't many billboards or ads painted everywhere or chain food stores, like in most cities. In fact, we still had yet to see a McDonald's, and we were kinda counting on its dollar menu for dinner. I suppose we _could_ always go to WacDonald's, which I think is the anime equivalent, but after being turned down _way too harshly_ by the manager, I don't think we're going back there until we're millionaires and can rub that fact in his face. But this place seemed to be the brightest artificial thing we'd seen all day (save for the infamous Chupacabra's that we _actually got to see_ but _did not ask for a job from_ ).

The interior was even more impressive. "Bigger on the inside," Nikki marvelled. Old arcade systems littered the back walls, and the newer ones were up front. The whole place was like a better-funded Chuck E. Cheese, with surprisingly not-creepy animatronics and a prize counter with some of the most high-tech cheap plastic toys imported from China. The lights weren't really _blinding_ , but the place wasn't too terribly dark. My eyes adjusted within seconds. Perfect gaming light.

"I think I've died and gone to heaven," Nicole and I said together. Then we looked at each other and high-fived because _holy shit we are each other's spirit animals yesss spirit buddies hell yeah!_

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"Yeah," Nikki agreed. "A place this hella fine should be _crawling_ with fellow weebs. I mean, I saw a freaking _dating sim_ back there, and there's two of them for each gender! No matter how you swing, this place is, like, the shit!"

"So I see someone here is a friend," came a voice. We turned to see a guy behind the prize counter, carefully Windex-ing the glass.

"Who are you?" I asked. I could've sworn zen music began playing from the speakers the moment Nikki said that.

"I am Mark, the manager. But you may call me Daiki. All my friends do," he told us with a sloppy grin that brightened up the room and ruined the perfect gaming light. "And you, my fellow weeaboos, are totally my friends. Definitely welcome here."

Nikki gasped through the didgeridoo. I mentally rolled my eyes. Was she seriously going along with this?

" _You_ run this place?" she asked, seemingly astounded.

"Yes. I also am a proud owner of this fine establishment," he informed her.

She went starry-eyed. "You spend your days _here?_ In this haven for weebs?" Was she _really-?_ "Teach me your ways, Daiki-senpai!" _Oh my God, she really was._

This was a fucking riot. I cackled and folded over, falling to the floor but not really sure of what I was laughing about. This has to be the best place on freakin' _earth_.

"Rowena, Ro, dude, c'mon," Nicole nagged, trying to bring me back to the ground. "Dude, you okay?" she asked as soon as my chortles levelled down into muffled snorts.

"High as a friggin' kite, Nikki," I giggled.

She giggled with me, though I'm not sure what at.

She nudged me back into reality, though, slowly but surely. "Dude, we came here for a reason," she reminded.

"Oh, yeah." We were here for jobs. And I just cackled like a mental patient all over the floor. I swear to this day I heard Nikki in the back of my mind, sending me telepathic signals of, " _Wow, 10/10, nice job, #perf, #firsttry, #nailedit."_

I told it to shut the fuck up and decided that I hated the Nikki voice in my head.

"Um…" I started intelligently.

"Nikki to the rescue!" Nicole whispered excitedly, before beginning for me. "We're here about the advertisement in the newspaper. About the job?"

"Ah, yes." Daiki(-senpai?) nodded sagely. "Could you fill out these forms?" he asked. He handed us some papers and a pen, and we took a seat in a booth and took turns with the pen.

I blinked. This was actually the farthest we've gotten in an interview. Most of the time they just insulted us and I and Nikki went off on them or they were senile and didn't want to go back to jail or something.

The forms were all pretty basic.

Name: Rowena Dae

Age: 16

Gender: Female.

Stuff like that.

I hesitated when it began to ask about schooling, so I just decided "screw it" and filled in the name of my old school. Adress? the paper asked me. This time I froze. How was I going to apply to a job while saying I lived in another _state?_ I leaned over to see what Nikki had put before me. " _N/A,"_ she'd written _._ I bit my tongue and filled the same thing into the blank.

After I filled in all that I could, I glanced over it and felt myself growing nervous. Lots of spaces were left blank or filled with Not Available. I wasn't sure what to do with the spaces, though, so I just clicked the pen closed and went up with Nikki back to the counter.

Daiki hemmed and hawed a bit at the papers, nodding along a bit and going, "Oh, that's nice," every once in a while. I was dying to see what he meant, but forced my self to be quiet and stand there with my aching legs in front of the counter.

"Do you have anything to prove you're you?" he asked.

"I do," Nikki told him, raising her hand like she was in class. She presented her military ID, and he nodded twice, his index finger and thumb holding his chin.

"And you?" He gestured to me.

 _Shit, how do I respond to this?_ "Uh… Unfortunately, no," I managed to say before I fried my brain.

"Really?" he asked. "Nothing? Birth certificate, driver's permit, anything?"

"Um… No?"

"Not even a DWMA student ID?"

"What?" I asked. "Why would we go to the DWMA?" _Play it cool, don't panic, play it cool, Rowena, be cool, don't panic-_

Nikki fake yawned. Did her tell have to be so obvious?

"Because you're a weapon," he said, pointing one of his calloused hands at Nikki, "and you're a meister," he ended, jabbing his other finger at me.

Nikki forced a loud laugh. " _Pfft,_ naw, why would you think that?" she asked, flapping her hand in what was supposed to have been a dismissing matter. "Also, _who the hell told you?_ Was it Frank the pigeon? Goddammit, Frank couldn't keep his _damn beak shut!"_

"Nikki, don't blame the hypothetical Chinese-Canadian baby man," I chided, though I knew she was just trying to make him laugh and distract him long enough to change the subject. I was as nervous as she was.

Daiki blinked slowly. "Actually, I know, not because an odd baby-man pigeon told me, but because I was once a meister, myself."

I gawked for half a moment before remembering that manners were a thing. Nikki, however, did not get the memo.

"Daiki-senpai, you were a _meister_? Didja graduate? Were you kicked out? Were you ever held back? Who was your partner? Is the DWMA a good school, or is it like one of those ones that have sixth graders doing drugs and stuff?" she asked, shooting off questions like an automatic machine gun.

He laughed quietly and slowly, which, strange as it sounds, was apparently possible. "Calm down, kohai," he said lackadaisically. "And to answer your question, I _did_ graduate."

Nikki stopped. "But I asked you more than tha-"

I cut her off by pinching her neck. She squeaked like a mouse and her shoulders jumped up to cover her neck.

"Don't be rude," I scolded like I hadn't just pinched a pressure point.

"Dang, that hurt," Nikki hissed, inching away from me and rubbing her neck.

"Anyways, Daiki, we just found out today that we're a meister and weapon, so…" I trailed off, not really knowing how to phrase the question. "D'you think you could keep that sort of hush-hush? Just between us?"

"On the down-low?" Daiki asked. "Sure, I can keep a secret."

"So do we have the job?" Nikki butted in. I raised my hand to pinch her again and she flinched away. Haha, yes, point one for Ro.

Daiki smiled (well, smiled a more noticeable smile, he had been smiling the whole freaking time) nodded. "Yes, and you start now."

After handing both of us two work polos each (saying he would just take it out of our future paychecks) and having us change into the neon uniforms, Daiki set us to work with a couple menial tasks, like restocking the claw machines and ticket dispensers and scraping the gum off the bottoms of the tables. We were also allowed to keep any quarters we found on the ground, so Nikki and I made an easy three dollars and twenty-five cents that way.

Several teens and kids came in after school clubs ended, around five or six-ish, because apparently Anime and Manga Club is a thing inside an anime or manga. This was around the time when Daiki showed us how to fix the machines because these fucktards kept breaking the Street Fighter machine in their pissy, pubescent fits of rage.

Nikki decided she would ultimately stick to being a janitor, since she pretty much sucked at dealing with anything electronic and more advanced than Google Docs. I, on the other hand, having an engineer for a dad, actually know how that stuff works, and took on the position of technical support.

At the end of the day, around eight-ish, Daiki pulled us over.

"Your forms and the many blank spaces you left make it hard for you to legally work here," he told us, point-blank.

Nikki's chapped lips turned into what may have been an attempt at a snarl. "You could've told us this before we worked our asses off!" she whisper-yelled, too scared of alerting the customers of a fight between employees to actually yell. The cuss words, however, kinda tripped across her lips and fell on the floor. She was too short and her voice was too high and the way she angrily pushed the bridge of her nose in search of glasses to straighten was just too cute for her to effectively cuss. I, however, had no such issue.

Just as I opened my mouth to either ask what he meant or turn into an angry rage-monkey (I hadn't quite decided yet), he held up a hand in the world-wide signal for, "calm yo tits."

"I said it was _hard to_ work here, not that it was impossible," he soothed. Nikki puffed up in embarrassment like a miffed bird.

"So how are we going to work here if it's barely legal?" I asked.

"Simple!" he smiled. "You work here for me, I give you money every once in a while, and we have _no official contract or business ties!_ "

Nikki and I blinked at him like he was stupid. Which he was, in case you hadn't noticed.

"I don't think that's really… _allowed,_ " Nicole began slowly. Then she turned to me questioningly. "Is it?"

I just shrugged. I was a fandom-consumed high school student before this, I had no time for a job on top of that.

"No previous work experience," I told her, shrugging. "I don't know how all this legal stuff works. Plus, it might be different in Nevada." I almost stumbled on "Nevada." I'd nearly said "this world," but thankfully my brain could catch up to my mouth. I inwardly patted myself on the back for my smooth save.

"It's not exactly _legal_ , per say," he began, and Nikki groaned before dropping her head into her hands.

" _Oh, God, I should've known the only one to give us a job would do it illegally, of course, after all, how has this whole freaking_ day _gone?"_ she muttered, before the rest of her monologue went incoherent.

"More like toeing the line," Daiki continued, apparently oblivious to Nikki's distressed muttering. "So long as nobody comes up and asks us straight out, we're good. For now we can just say we're doing what we're doing, and if inspectors or anything come knocking, you hide or say I'm letting you lend a hand while your folks are out, m'kay?"

The way he said it, so… relaxed, like there was nothing to worry about, nearly made my mind before I even thought about it.

Nikki looked at me for an answer. "I mean, I guess it's okay, I dunno…" she began, still looking for my response.  
I sighed. "So long as nobody comes looking."

Daiki grinned and flashed me two thumbs up. "Sweet! You'll be paid every Sunday, twenty-five cents over minimum wage, make sure you be here by seven, and if anyone asks, you don't live here!"

And with that, he shoved us out the door.

"Wait a minute…," I began, all the info he just threw at me finally processing. _"Minimum wage?"_

"Twenty-five cents over minimum wage!" he corrected from somewhere inside.

Nikki grabbed my arm and started pulling me away. "Just roll with it," she repeated for the ump-teenth time that day.

Of course, though, while looking for somewhere to eat the discount veggies we bought/stole for dinner, shit hit the fan.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

Nikki

I hummed the most relaxing Miyazaki song I knew as I helped Rowena carry the bag of raw vegetables and fruits we bought, and the few we lifted.

Stealing was morally wrong, and it hurt my little heart to think that people worked hard and we just stole their hard work without rewarding them, but when you gotta eat to live, and gotta steal to eat, you know how it goes. I did my best to only steal a bit from every stand so we wouldn't get caught. People don't notice it if you only take crumbs, but if you get greedy, you get caught.

Even though I still thought it was better to buy, I was well aware that my remaining forty bucks would only spread so far. Thus the stealing.

"So," I began. "Three apples, two potatoes, and a tomato. Plus that newspaper from earlier. Do you think we have a bounty on our heads, yet?"

Rowena giggle snorted, the most unique combination of an, "mmf, hehaha!" that could be made. "I don't think so," she grinned, finally more easygoing now that the giant crowds of people had dispersed. "I mean, we _bought_ the instant ramen, and, like, the other three discount tomatoes." Night had fallen, and we were trying to find somewhere close to a clock tower so we could tell the time, and close to the Doki Doki Gamer's Corner- cough, Daiki's Arcade.

"Ah, I hope we find somewhere to camp soon," she said quietly. "I'm starving." She lifted a tomato to her lips and took a bite to prove her point.

I nodded in agreement. My insane desperate wish to find a job before eating had led to no lunch, and since all we'd had was a cone of ice cream each all day, I was about ready to fold over and pass out. Rowena might have been the same way, but she had years of marching band under her belt and thus had more stamina than I.

" _Wait,"_ she hissed, freezing. I froze, too.

"What is it?" I whispered as quietly as I could. I received no answer. I tried to repeat my question. "What is-"

" _Sh!"_ she cut me off. She slowly put down her side of the bag. I followed suit.

Rowena squeezed her eyes shut, like she was trying to think of something really hard, and I just glanced around to see if I could spot what she was freaking out about.

We were alone.

The lamp posts were flickering.

The tall buildings loomed.

Not a sound was heard.

I swallowed the bile and panic in my throat.

Rowena's tomato was squeezed in her hand, gently. The tomato juice dripped down steadily onto the sidewalk, _drip drip drip._

"There!" she shouted, startling me. She chucked the tomato against a house, and that's when I saw something dark and menacing scuttle past. With _red eyes._

"Rowena," I whispered as quietly as I could, not sure if she could even hear me. "Rowena, what was that?"

"I don't know but I think I might," she hissed back. "And if I'm right, we are _so. Freaking. Screwed._ "

We held still like that for a few more moments while I wondered what she was thinking of. Then it hit me like a freight train. I'd known they existed in this universe, but I didn't think we'd actually _run into_ one, let alone on our first day!

More minutes past, more seconds and nanoseconds and snapshots of us not moving and with a grocery bag in between us.

"I think it's-"

"Nonono, don't say it," I interrupted. "You'll jinx it and we'll both die like the tomato you threw at that house."

"What?"

"Splattered." Then I thought of what I just said. "You know, that held one heck of a lot more weight in my head. Now it's just stupid."

"Let's just get out of here, okay?" she responded, too freaked out to fake a laugh at my pathetic jokes. I nodded and we grabbed the bag and-

" _Fuck, it's back!"_ she shouted, not bothering with stealth anymore.

"Ditch the bag!" I barked. "Let's go!'

I grabbed her hand and we booked it like a freaking librarian.

Sometime during the desperate chase, we let each other go, but made sure the other didn't fall behind.

"What are we even running from?" I shouted, giving up on keeping it quiet.

"I don't know!" she answered. "But I think I can sense souls, and I think it's red, and I think it's kishin!"

 _Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap…_

I felt myself speed up, forcing Rowena to go even faster just to keep up with my adrenaline-induced sprint. I vaguely remember hearing her yelling at me, but it was blocked out by the number of _oh, crap_ 's floating around and clouding my mind.

It was around this time when I nearly ran into a wall.

"Damn, you run fast!" Rowena gasped out. "I was trying to get you to slow down! We missed our turn, this is unfamiliar territory!"

 _Oh, so it's like we were riding a public bus and now we're totally lost,_ supplied my brain, rather unhelpfully.

"And this is a dead end," I realized. I smacked myself in the face. "Oh my God, I am so sorry, we're screwed, we're going to die because of my _stupidity,_ oh my God, oh my God, I am so dumb, kill me now, I am so insanely stupid, I shouldn't be alive, we're going to die because of me," I rambled, feeling like crawling into a hole and dying.

"Dude, dude, calm down, calm the fuck down," Rowena repeated, over and over, finally managing to snap me out of it by grabbing my shoulder.

"We can just hide in one of the buildings!" Rowena told me, lighting up. "We're going to be fine, just help me open one of these doors!"

I blinked. _We are surrounded by buildings, we are going to be fine, I just have to open a door._

I flipped myself back around and started jiggling the handles and checking under doormats for keys.

" _It's coming!"_ Rowena warned. I didn't question her, I just kept searching for a door that would freaking _open._

"Nikki," Rowena called. I listened this time.

"No doors, I checked," she informed me.

"Well, this has been helpful," I said, laying the sarcasm on thick. Rowena didn't point out that I wasn't really helping out all, which I was super thankful for. I kind of _needed_ sarcasm right now, or I'd be a nervous wreck. I needed something familiar to anchor me.

"We can't run anymore," she added on. I blinked. Was she insinuating that we'd have to-?

"Turn into a sword, I'll try my best to take it from there."

"You're not serious, are you?" I asked, faking a laugh.

I looked her in the eye.

"Oh my God, you _are_ serious," I gasped a little, wide-eyed.

"Can you turn into a sword?" she asked.

I thought about it. "Maybe? I think?"

"Good, because it's here."

I turned and saw a long shadow and long teeth and red eyes that _glowed,_ way down on the other side of the street.

I mentally screamed and thought as hard as I could, focusing on the words, " _Turn into a sword, turn into a sword, turn into a sword!"_ as I tried to force myself into the form. Then I remembered being spooked in that alley, jumping up, the pure _instinct_ that took over during my freak out.

I froze in my frantic chanting and just decided to ask politely and calmly. " _Sword form, please?"_

I froze in my frantic chanting and just decided to ask politely and calmly. " _Sword form, please?"_

And then, when I opened my eyes, I realized I was cold and flat and sharp and _goddamn, I am some hot shit!_

"Hey, it worked!" I noted. "And I feel as sexy as fuckin' Matt Smith, bro!"

Rowena leaned over and grabbed me off the floor while the kishin _roared_ and _charged._

She sidestepped at the last second and swung me like a baseball bat, but the freaky clawed thing just leapt over my like I was a hurdle. Its momentum carried him up the apartment building wall a good seven feet before it dug its claws into the brick and halted, turning its head without moving its neck to _screech like a banshee._

Rowena jumped back to make distance, and I blinked. "I didn't know you could jump like that."

"And I didn't know you could run like that," she answered easily. "Now… hush? Please? I kinda need to fo- _cus!"_

The last word went up in pitch and volume because the beady-eyed _thing_ had leaped down and Rowena threw herself back so as not to get _crushed_ and _clawed_ and _killed._

"Why are you so _heavy?"_ Ro asked, trying to lift me so I wasn't dragging on the ground.

"I dunno, I'm usually super light!" I panicked. "I'll try to fix it?" Then it lunged, _again._

This time, when Ro lifted me to try to hit him as he passed, I tried to move with her.

"You're not getting any lighter!" she told me in a sing-song voice, though that may have been because she had to dodge another series of lunges and slashes from the incoming kishin.

 _Crap crap crap crap what would a professional weapon do? What would Soul do? Or Tsubaki, or Liz, or Patty?_

 _Um… What was that one episode, the one where Black Star and Soul tried to become partners? Why couldn't they?_

…

Oh.

If I had hands, I would've smacked myself in the face.

I closed my eyes shut and felt around for Rowena's soul. And there it was.

It was bright and green and thrummed like a heartbeat, and I could feel my own soul dancing to its own tune.

"Rowena!"I called out. "Find somewhere safe for a second, if convenient. If inconvenient, do it anyway _."_

"Did you just reference-"

"Match soul wavelengths with me and become a magical girl!"

"Okay, now this is just getting-"

" _Just do it!"_

I knew Ro was preoccupied, so I had to work myself to fit her soul, and not the other way around. Or, in my messed up mind's words, _I had to be the topper._ Gah, gross, why does my brain do these things to me?

I felt her soul's rhythm speed up to match my insane beat, and I slowed myself to fit with her. _Just like band class,_ I told myself. _Just match the other sections. Listen to the low brass._

And then, _zing!_ We both felt it, I was sure.

 _Ba-dump._

 _Ba-dump._

 _Ba-dump._

We were synchronized. We were perfect. It was like a whole bunch of those pictures from tumblr, the ones titled "Extremely Satisfying?" We were the perfectly organized oranges, so symmetrical we may as well be reflections in the mirror.

 _We are the oranges._

"We're not getting anywhere!" Ro shouted.

I snapped out of my metaphors and glanced around. This thing, despite our best efforts, just _would not die._

"How do we kill it?" I asked." Because you're getting pretty tired and I'm having trouble keeping our souls zen right now."

I used to think all weapons did was get swung around, but, _hoo boy_ , this was tougher than I'd thought.

"Should we try to resonate?" she asked, sweat dripping down her forehead. Her breaths came out in little pants. (Pants as in breaths, not as in the cloth you wear on your legs.)

"Hoe don't do it," I told her.

"I'mma do it."

"Hoe don't do it!"

" _Let's go, soul resonance!"_

" _Oh my God, you're doing it!"_

Knowing there was no going back, I smashed our souls together as best as I could, and this time Ro helped even more. We met perfectly halfway, just about. I heard someone screaming in the background, behind my wall of concentration. I was too focused to see the world around me. Was it me screaming? Was it Ro? It was probably the both of us.

"Let's do the thing!"

"I'mma do the thing!" she responded.

"What do we call the thing?"

"We call the thing whatever we want to call the thing!"

" _ **Ether Aura!"**_ we yelled, as loud as we could because _we may die from this, but ya know what? Fuck that shit, we're going out with a bang and a sexy-ass named resonance!_

I wasn't sure what I was expecting with Soul Resonance, but when we resonated, I felt myself _explode._ Not literally, of course, that would be awful. But I felt my soul's wavelength expand and wrap itself around my blade, mixing together with Rowena's and sending out condensed pulses like ripples in a lake.

"Kishin, your soul is mine!" Ro added, just for emphasis. This time, Ro was the one who charged, lifting me level with her shoulder before thrusting me deep into the kishin's heart and moving faster than I thought was possible with her exhaustion.

We froze.

We were silent.

We didn't move.

The kishin's eyes went dark.

Once she was sure the damn thing was finally dead, she flicked her wrist and I cut a long line from the center of its chest to out its side. The cuts glowed like a glo-stick, burning red, until it fell into ribbons that spun and wrapped around a singular, red, egg-like soul.

Then, naturally, Rowena fall to her knees, coughing, and I fell on my butt and out of sword form, fighting off one hell of a headache.

"Oh my God, I think I'm going to puke," Ro gurgled from her spot on the sidewalk. I just curled up tighter into a little ball, having to fight off my own nausea as well.

"Hey Ro?" I asked, trying my hardest not to throw up from the _sheer exhaustion_ because

[ _everything is spinning whoa where's the ground what's what ow even thinking hurts goddamn Jesus take the fucking wheel I'mma die please let me die I need like morphine over here_ ]

soul balancing is hard work.

"Y-yeah?" she answered after a second passed, just of her trying to catch her breath.

"You know in Maximum Ride? The killer headache she got, the one she got when she thought she was dying?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, now I can say that I can relate."

I heard her force out a weak laugh that turned into a cough in between her wheezes.

And then I heard applause.

"Well done, well done, my weeaboo friends!" he greeted.

"Oh, God, don't tell me it's him," Ro croaked out.

If I had the breath, I would've screamed in frustration and the sheer amount of "Oh, come _on!"_ that filled my very soul to the brim.

"You left your groceries," Daiki told us, dropping the brown paper bag by my head where I was laying on the concrete. "Bit of a sloppy job you did, my friends," he told us off-handedly, stretching out a finger to poke at the floating kishin soul. "But I gotta admit, that soul resonance was pretty darn decent for a couple of kids who never fought before."

"How-" _Cough, hack._ "H-how did you know?" I asked.

"You couldn't turn into a sword at first," he answered, shrugging his shoulders.

Rowena was as outraged as a greatly fatigued fifteen year old could be. "You were there," she began, the light coming back to her eyes. "The whole. Freaking. _Time?_ And it didn't occur to you to help the starving young girls fight back the _cannibalistic rage-monster?"_

I just squeezed my eyes shut and felt and crying. "I just want to eat some _food,"_ I sniffled. "My feet have blisters, my head wants to implode, and I just want to _sit down_ and _eat,_ but _nooo,_ obviously, Ro and I get to fight a freaking _hate-filled demon!"_ I balled up my hands into fists and angrily pawed at my eyes. "I just wanna eat," I repeated.

Daiki, noticing the little girl (e.g: _me_ ) was about to break any second into a hot mess, he panicked a bit and offered me a small arcade prize candy from his pocket. I gratefully took it and forced myself to suck those tears up back into my eyes.

Ro, thank God for her, was holding together a lot better than I was. Well, I mean, she was still trying to catch her breath and her bare feet was red and raw, but at least she wasn't having a minor panic attack.

"Can we just, I dunno, find somewhere to sleep for tonight? Please?" Ro asked.

Daiki blinked. "Oh. Oh, yeah, sure!" he grinned, though it wasn't as bright as usual. Perhaps it was because he noticed that we weren't exactly at a hundred percent right then. Actually, I felt more like I was at twenty-ish, tops.

"Actually…," he began. "I brought you a present!"

Ro and I blinked in surprise as he shoved a crumpled newspaper under over our noses. Ro reached for it, but he snatched it back. "Ah, ah, ah~!" he sang, waggling his finger. I had the sudden urge to bite it off. "You have to sit up for it!"

"What am I, a dog?" I muttered, forcing myself up, despite the strong feeling of _whoa where has the floor gone._ Ro got up first, and grabbed the bundle. I just peaked over her shoulder.

Ro quickly peeled off the layers of paper, skipping enticing headlines that blared, "DOG CAUGHT IN TREE: A NEIGHBORHOOD PRANK, OR A DOG WITCH IN DISGUISE?" and "DWMA STUDENTS APPROACH THE PRIZED TITLE OF DEATH SCYTHE!". She was either eager to see what he'd gotten us, or eager to do what he wanted us to do so he would shut up and leave already.

"This is pretty small," Ro said quietly, realizing that the giant bundle was pretty much one part present, ten parts newspaper.

She finally got to the bottom, pages of the Death City Sunday falling into the street.

"What is this, a mirror?" I asked. "Are you trying to make a statement on our current state of dishevelled-ness?"

And then the mirror glowed.

"Hey, hi, how are ya?" Lord Death asked.

Ro's eyes widened, and I, understandably, screamed a little bit and backed up about ten butt-scoots away. (So I had slight post-fight stress, sue me. I'd like to see _you_ be thrown out of everything you knew and get chucked head-first into a life-or-death battle and escape without being strung as tight as a clothesline.)

I gave myself a second to breathe in for four counts, out for seven, and then butt-scooted my way back.

"Daiki, what are you playing at?" I scowled.

Rowena threw in her own two cents. "You think you're slick, mate? You ain't slick." I think she actually managed to upstage me.

"That was quite the fight you two girls had," Lord Death said cheerily. He was ignored.

"What's your play, Daiki?" I tacked on, determined not to let him go unpunished. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

"And I didn't," he said evenly. This scared me. "Even" was not a good tone on Daiki. Then he grinned, which was even scarier. "I only called Lord Death to extend an invitation so we could go to lunch and catch up, you know, like old pals~!"

Our jaws dropped. _You can't be serious._

"It just-so-happened that you two were attacked by a kishin while I was trying to find you two and give you the groceries that you dropped," he plowed on, digging his own grave, seemingly. "I never really _told_ him about you, but potential like you two's?" Daiki stopped a bit to chuckle, and when he looked back up a strangely professional glint was in his eyes. "That _has_ to be reported."

I began to really, really, _really_ dislike our new boss.

And, as silent as a shadow, Ro smashed the non-glass side of the mirror against his head with enough force to make him fall out of his crouching position.

He landed with an, "Oomf!" and a small amount of blood trickled from behind his ear.

" _Rowena smash puny god,"_ she growled, gritting her teeth.

"Hey, hey! Be careful!" Lord Death cried. "You're breaking up my reception!"

Ro flipped the mirror back over to see a small crack in the glass.

"Oh, you're still here," I said blandly.

"Yes, well, I'm here to talk to you about-" _the Avengers Initiative_ "-joining the DWMA."

"Well, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed," I told him.

"What? Huh?"

"Never mind."

"But hey, fighting a kishin! And a soul resonance on your first battle! That's pretty impressive, kiddos," the almighty Lord Death who slew the Kishin and was basically immortal and was actually pretty lame in person said.

I blinked. Was that a compliment I heard? "Uh, thanks?" I murmured, beginning to fall asleep.

"That's one of the most impressive things I've seen in a long while, in fact!" he continued on. "Actually, I was wondering how you did it. MInd letting me on on the big secret, eh, champ?" He leaned up real close to the mirror and held up a hand like we were going to tell him a secret.

Ro blinked and went, "Huh?" Feeling like she was even more out of it than I was, I went on for her.

"I dunno how," I told him truthfully. "I just kinda… mushed our souls together, and then Ro and I did the thing. Ya know?"

"Well, actually, no. I don't know," he said. I just leaned on Ro and she leaned on me. "I may have to ask you two to come in for a checkup before you begin class, just to make sure."

"Whoa, wait, wah?" Ro asked, sitting up all of a sudden. I slipped back and nearly hit my head on the pavement. Thanks, frond. "Who said anything about going to class?"

"Well, you _are_ meister and weapon, are you not?" he asked. I wondered briefly if it was rhetorical, but it didn't really matter because he continued on without a response.

"That means the best education you can get, you can get at the DWMA."

"But-" I protested.

"We'll provide you with lodging," he told us, dangling a carrot in front of our noses.

I sniffed. "You're gonna have to do better than that."

" _Free_ lodging." I froze. _That's actually pretty good,_ I thought. "Plus insurance, courtesy of the school, so long as you keep your grades up."

 _That's_ insanely _good! But what is he playing at?_

"What's the catch?" Rowena and I asked at the same time.

" _Eyyyyy!"_ we cheered, pointing little finger guns at each other.

"Fuckin' spirit buddies, man!" Ro beamed, despite the exhaustion.

I gave her a happy grin in return. "We are so on point that knives be jealous of us!" Then I turned back to the mirror. "But seriously, what's the catch?"

"Oh, no no. No catch," he assured us, waving his hands around. He moved his hands around a lot, actually. Probably to make up for the fact that he doesn't have a face.

Of course, though, Ro and I didn't bite.

"You just have to go to weekly check ups with our school nurse, ya see. Since we'll be providing you with medical insurance it'll be easier and cheaper at the school that way!" he rambled.

"Oh," I blinked. Then I turned to Ro. "Should we bite? I mean, this is an insanely good deal, but if you don't wanna go, I'll happily stick with you. You're kinda the only person in the world I know right now, so..."

Ro stared off into space for a moment, most likely thinking, and then spoke. "We'll do it. It was the plan eventually anyways, this is just a little bit ahead of schedule."

"Okay, alright! I'll expect you two in front of the DWMA in a week's time, seven in the morning," Lord Death informed us. "See ya, kiddos~!" And then the mirror faded out.

We gave it a few seconds.

"I feel like we just made a deal with the devil," I told Ro dryly.

"Maybe we did," she shrugged.

"Wanna crash in the nearest alley?" I asked.

She nodded. "Leggo."

We made it a few steps down the alley, the mirror carelessly thrown into the grocery bag.

"Wait up!" called Daiki. "Guys, wait up!"

Ro turned. "Oh, it's you."

I absentmindedly scratched my head. "Gonna be honest, I'd actually forgotten you were here."

He pouted. "That cuts deep, kid. That cuts deep. But I respect that."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't," I told him flatly.

He sighed. "But before you go, I have two things for you. Number one." He held up the kishin soul. "Don't you wanna eat this?"

I blinked before reaching out for it. Daiki pushed it into my palm, and it floated just above my hand. It kinda reminded me of a fushigi, but not a cheap trick full of lies.

"How do I eat this thing?" I asked, looking to Daiki for answers.

He looked at me blankly. "Have you ever eaten anything, ever?"

"Yeah?"

"It's just like that."

I looked at it a little longer before grabbing it tightly and stuffing it in my mouth. I felt my cheeks puff up like a chipmunk's, and I chewed a little bit just because I was used to chewing my food. It was actually kinda unnecessary, since it had the consistency of Jell-O, but eh. Who cared? I swallowed it and- _whoa, that was actually pretty satisfying._

"So?" asked Ro. "What did it taste like?"

I thought about it for a second. "Well, it doesn't really have a flavor, just a texture, ya know? How it feels going down the hatch."

"So what did it _feel_ like?" she asked.

I paused a little longer. "Like… Chicken 'n dumplings. Or, like, gravy and biscuits. Basically," I began, getting a villainous glint to my eye. "It tastes like _soul food."_

Ro groaned loudly and pushed her face in her hands. "I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD, YOU MEME," she yelled.

I just cackled.

"Hehehe, _soul food,_ that was a good one," snickered Daiki. He offered me a high five. I accepted.

"SO!" he began again, clapping his hands twice just to get our attention. "Would you guys… I dunno…" He suddenly looked very unsure of himself. "Wanna… Crash at my place?" I got the strange feeling that I was looking at a lonely kid who wanted his friends to have a sleepover with him. _So cute,_ I mentally cooed.

But I had to put my foot down.

… Maybe just a _teeny tiny_ one, though.

"Sorry, Daiki-senpai," I said, looking down a bit. Then he made a face. I froze, and then quickly turned away. I pushed Ro in front of me. _"I can't handle sad people please help me I don't know what to do and I don't want to hurt his feelings he looks like a puppy you do the thing I can't do it!"_ I hissed to her.

Ro looked a little unsure of what to do, herself. "I'm really sorry, Daiki… -senpai?" She glanced at me like, _Should I really call him senpai?_ I just nodded encouragingly. "But we can't. We couldn't impose on you, and we kinda need to crash immediately. So… see ya at work tomorrow?"

He just nodded. "It's alright, don't worry about it!" His smile was a little fake.

"Maybe we could try again some other time?" I offered. I briefly wondered if making an offer was a mistake, but the words were already out of my mouth before I realized what I'd said. But then he lit up like a glowstick and I decided that regret was for losers, anyway.

He let us go and Ro and I stumbled along the road like drunks and flopped down in the nearest alley we could find.

We nearly forgot to make sure nobody would see us living it out like bums while we slept, but thankfully a cat came along to scare the living crap out of us and reinforce our paranoia. Then the two of us shoved an apple in each of our mouths, just to stave off the hunger, and laid down behind a dumpster for a long awaited nap.

The moon cackled at us from up above.

"Fuck you," I told it.

Perhaps I slept.


End file.
